September 2020 General Meeting, via Zoom

September 8, 2020September 8, 2020 iemqguild

We had another Zoom Guild Meeting this past weekend and had a great discussion about our favorite quilting tools, from scissors to machines to types of thread. Thank you to all who attended and we look forward to seeing you again in October.

• A N N O U N C E M E N T S •

• Next month’s meeting, on October 3, 2020 will show some sewing rooms, sewing studios, hallways, dining room tables, or other spaces dedicated to where you sew. We’ve seen some of your rooms when you’ve Zoomed with us, and we’d like you to give us a tour of where you store stuff, and your favorite spot in your sewing space. Please send us an email at iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com if you’d like to share. Deadline for letting Laura and Becky, our Program Chairs, know is Monday, September 28, 2020. Thank you!

• We are in the process of gathering together new officers for our Guild. If you think you could step in and help us (terms are one year), then please email the chair of the Nominating Committee, Elizabeth Eastmond, at opquilt@gmail.com. More information can be found on a previous post on this website.

• Many pieces of business are conducted at our Zoom Board Meetings (minutes are in the tab up above). The most recent significant news is that our Retreat this November has been postponed until next November. All those who had paid — either a deposit or full payment — have been contacted.

• Our Opportunity Quilt is finished! Gayle has been dutifully sewing down the faced binding, putting the finishing touches on a quilt that began with Cat’s ideas. Some helped here and there in piecing, but Cat finished it up for us and quilted it. It’s stunning! Soon it will have its own tab, and its own schedule, but thought you’d like to see this sneak peak of the quilt. Thank you, everyone!

• We have a segment of our Zoom Meeting where we show slides of your quilts, and you narrate for us. It’s really wonderful to see what you’ve been working on. Please also send high-quality pictures of your quilts to our email address (above) and we’ll be able to share them with everyone. Please include the following info:

SHOW AND SHARE • SEPTEMBER 2020

Quilter: Gayle Bennett
Quilter’s Statement: This is a jean quilt for my daughter and family to take in their travel trailer. I think this will be a one time experience in quilting. Whew, this was a heavy one. I used a layer of thoroughly preshrunk flannel instead of batting because this quilt does not need any additional weight! Backing and binding is a lightweight denim from Joann’s.

Quilter: Ginger Gabriel
Quilt Name: Honor
Quilt size: 60” x 77”
Maker’s Statement: We will be presenting to to a local veteran for Quilts of Valor.

Quilter: Ginger Gabriel
Quilt size: 30”x 40”
Maker’s Statement: For niece, Ericka, graduating from college with double major in Creative Design and Economics From an Institute in Paris. She described her style as Modern Minimalist, preceding black, grey and blue. I used linen I had purchased at quilt show in France.

Quilter: Debi Gardner
Quilt Name: Pick-up Sticks Pop of Color
Quilt Size: Large lap size.
This was a swap a block shared with a group of us who belong to Pass Patchers. The requirement was black and white only. We could make any block 12 1/2″ square. I added the pick-up stick blocks for some color and used shattered quilting with black, red, and teal thread.

Quilter: Pat Klassen
Quilt size: lap quilts
Maker’s Statement: None.

Quilter: Candy Scott
Quilt size: varied
Maker’s Statement: The quilt on the left is for a baby boy . The parents are both scientists, (Dad is doing research on Covid-19), so I used Dr Seuss Periodic Table fabric on the back.
The quilt on the right is a charity quilt. I used the pattern for three 1 yard fabrics, but I did not want to do borders, so I used an extra 1/4 yard of the focus fabric and stripe binding. It finished at 48″ x57.”

Quilter: Candy Scott
Maker’s Statement: This quilt was a mystery quilt for our community Quilt Club. We started in Mid-January. We were given a step to complete each week. The final step to assemble was given just as we were shutting down. Mine is made with a Grunge Dot Jelly Roll and the yardage is Grunge.

Maker: Lynn Hanna
Name: Sew Powerful Purses
I picked up this flier at QuiltCon in February. I just sent them off, on their way to Zambia, to help girls stay in school while on their period. They fill them with supplies for the young women.

Quilter: Lynn Hanna
Quilt Name: Global Warming Mandala
Statement: I watched Mel Beach stitch mandalas on a Quilting Arts TV show. I made some wedges, then stitched in each web, free hand, no marking, as she suggested. This is the result.
Look closely to see increased fires, severe tornadoes, lightening, ocean waves from sea level rising, living things in turmoil, and parched land.

Thank you to those who made charity quilts this month. Some lucky person will have these great quilts to enjoy.

Please send photos to iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com for inclusion in our next meeting. Please send by October 1, 2020. Choose Large or Actual Size if sending them from your phone.

SCCQG 2021 Road to California Special Exhibit
The time is NOW to enter a quilt into this exhibit.
The deadline to receive your entry is now October 1, 2020.
During this stay-at -home time are you busy quilting? Are you working on a quilt that has been begging to be completed? Have you finished a quilt for an now postponed future guild quilt show? Or a new fresh quilt has emerged that you would like to share with fellow quilters? Solution = Enter these quilts in our 2021 SCCQG Road to California special exhibit!!!
The “Sharing Our Quilts” exhibit is designed to be a showcase for recent (2019-2020) quilts that you have, or you are producing. There is no specific theme or topic, or size limitation. The plan is to share treasured styles of quilting or patterns you relish. This is exhibit is all about Southern California quilts created by members of SCCQG Member guilds. Numerous quilts are needed.
There is still time to enter as the deadline is October 1, 2020. The Call for Quilts and Entry Form are posted on the SCCQG website.
NOTE: Our Guild belongs to this larger, regional organization. If you have a quilt you’d like to enter, choose one of your smaller quilts, as they’d like to hang more of them at the show.

We want to hear from you!! Please send your thoughts to iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com There are two for each month throughout the rest of this year, so if you can’t write about one, maybe you can write about the other. They will publish mid-month, and we have some great submissions from our guild. Please join us, by giving us your thoughts.

[OCTOBER] What Zoom classes have you taken? How did the Zoom class work for you? What were some of the advantages? Disadvantages?
[OCTOBER] What Zoom Guild Meetings have you attended? What were the highlights? What were the things that were tiresome?
[NOVEMBER] What do you miss most about your “other, normal” life? Travel? Idle browsing in Target? Going out in the car to see whoever you wanted, whenever you wanted?
[DECEMBER] What has been the best part of this quarantine? What life lessons have you learned? What surprising gifts have come your way, due to the shut-down? What will you NOT pick up again when this is all over?
[JANUARY] Have you made a Covid-19 quilt? If so, send photos? Have you seen an interesting Covid-19 quilt? Again, send photos, and the source. Since this one is in January, maybe you want to start a quilt that depicts this time in our lives? Some ideas are to make a quilt with words (social distancing, flatten the curve, etc.), or one that has elements of the virus’ shape (see below). Maybe you have your own feeling about this time, and want to express in a non-traditional quilt. Look forward to January, when we talk about, and maybe see, quilts from the covid-era.

Block of the Month for us: Lightning Block, from the MQG website

We have many resources on the national Modern Quilt Guild site, including a monthly block. This block can be used to make the quilts below. Head over to the site to download your instructions (look for the newsletter in your email for the link).

We appreciate all those who gave service to our Guild this past month, from charity quilts to organizing the programs, and those who keeping the Guild running, serving on the Board and Committees. Many of these Guild members do their service behind the scenes so that we members can enjoy sharing our quilts and have a Modern Quilt Guild in the Inland Empire. We thank you!

Blog

Heat Wave News!

August 17, 2020 iemqguild

Is it hot enough for you?

In 1911, fans and ice were luxuries, air conditioning unknown. “On July 4, temperatures hit 103 in Portland, 104 in Boston (a record that still stands), 105 in Vernon, Vt., and 106 in Nashua, N.H., and Bangor, Maine. At least 200 died from drowning, trying to cool off in rivers, lakes, ponds and the ocean – anything wet. Still more died from heat stroke. The 1911 heat wave was possibly the worst weather disaster in New England’s history, with estimates of the death toll as high as 2,000” (from here).

But we’ve got them all beat, with this weather broadcaster letting us know it was 162 degrees in Los Angeles last week. So let’s think about something fun that’s coming up, and maybe by then, our heat wave will have broken.

We’re looking forward to our discussion of your favorite sewing and quilting tools at our IEMQG Zoom Meeting on September 5th. We all have favorite devices for sewing. Is yours a common one, or a specific one, or an unusual one? Our program will consist of sharing our favorite and important tools that we use while creating our quilts. Please send in a picture and include your name, the tool’s name (if it is a weird or unusual one) and how it is used, why it is so important, and any variations that may make it versatile. Then post it on an email to iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com with the subject line, “Tool Time.” Please send images by September 3, 2020, and watch your emails for your Zoom links to the meeting.

At our Guild Meetings in the past, we’d chat about our lives, share the treats at the back of the room while catching up with each other. We didn’t have many responses this month, but we appreciated Lynn Hanna’s thoughtful email, talking about registering for QuiltCon and thinking about Road. Some excerpts are below:

For QuiltCon, I spent a long time searching teacher’s websites, looking at their work, and thinking about the class they would be teaching. I didn’t find any classes that struck my fancy or that seemed worth the investment of time, energy, and money.

“I did however sign up for four lectures. I don’t recall the actual titles, but they are about photographing quilts (something I know nothing about), and interviews with judges and winners. I want to have a quilt in a major show someday, something that has eluded me so far. As far as concerns for the show, I learned from a virtual quilt show I attended in April this year. I usually spend all day enjoying the quilts and vendors, often several days. I found the virtual event well done for the short planning time they had to put it together, but I also only spent a couple hours instead of days.

“I loved having the quilt labels on my computer because I could read them without bending over the plastic tape line and having my glasses fall off as I try to get close enough to read them. I also liked that they posted the back sides. I did miss the “in person” look though. A photo is good, but a real quilt is so much better. I will miss the energy, eavesdropping on what others have purchased or enjoyed, running into a friend, or having lunch with someone from another part of the world and hearing a bit of their story.

“I did not register for Road to CA. I think it will be cancelled, and I didn’t want to get in the mess of refunds or rescheduling. I had several trips planned and lots of theater events scheduled this spring. All were cancelled eventually, but each one had a different procedure to resolve payments. I spent several days calling to cancel, then tracking that the refunds actually came through. Sign up for Road came in the middle of that and I just decided not to bother.

“If Road still happens, I will struggle to decide if I go or not. I have remained isolated. I can’t imagine expanding my bubble to attend the show, inside, with thousands of others, no matter how many masks and hand washing stations are available. I will be disappointed to miss the excitement, and will be envious of others willing to take the risk to enjoy the show.”

Elizabeth Eastmond writes: “I appreciated the fact that QuiltCon was sensitive to the realities of our COVID-19 pandemic and thought the idea of a “virtual” meeting made a lot of sense. I signed up for Daisy Auschehoug’s Illustrator 2 class, as I took her Illustrator 1 class in February and really learned a lot. I don’t have Illustrator, as I don’t want to pay the monthly fee. Instead I use Affinity Designer (actually the whole Affinity Suite) and it worked just fine in that class. I signed up for QuiltCon’s extra bit, and my schedule informed me after the fact that I’ll be getting up in the very early hours of the morning to participate!

“By the time I totaled up all the lectures I wanted to see, it was the price of the all-lecture pass, so I went that direction. Now I can see whatever lecture I want. I am a little bummed that all the recordings go away at the end of the meeting. It would have been nice to draw upon that for several weeks, but I’m just going to block out those days and make my own QuiltCon buzz!

“I did not sign up for any classes at Road to California, both for the reasons that Lynn states, but also because I had taken way too many classes this year and wanted a break. Given that our state still hasn’t opened up attendance at large-scale events at this point, I rather doubt I’ll be attending in person. I had been going around teaching at Guilds and giving lectures, and was stunned when this part of our world sort of stopped. But I’ve converted my workshops and lectures to a Live-Online presentation, and am pretty comfortable with this format. I wish that Road would follow QuiltCon’s lead and figure out how to do the same.”

Write us an email with some of your thoughts about September’s monthly topics (we have two for each month):

• How has your fabric shopping changed since Covid-19 hit? Do you do more online shopping?
• Has it been harder or easier to sew since the quarantine? Both? Neither? In what way?

The full list of monthly topics are found at the end of this post. We post your responses mid-month, so open up your email and shoot us a few lines, as we’d like to hear what you think, our friends and fellow quilters. You can write a little or you can write a lot; they will be edited for clarity and flow. Send to iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com

Send in your pictures and descriptions for Tool Time. Deadline is September 3rd. Please write “Tool” in the subject line.
Send in your pictures for Show and Share for our September General Zoom Meeting. Deadline is September 3rd. Please write “Show and Share” in the subject line.
Send in your ideas, thoughts and comments about either/both of our topics. We’ll publish them mid-September, but don’t procrastinate. We want to hear about your experiences.

Thank you!

Blog

2020 Guild Challenge: Urban

June 13, 2020June 13, 2020 iemqguild

Thanks to everyone who entered our 2020 Inland Empire Modern Quilt Guild Challenge. We had the theme of Urban, the requirement to use a minimum of 4″ of blue fabric (we handed out the swatch), and the size restriction of the longest side measuring 24 inches. We’ve gathered them all together; they are presented in alphabetical order. All dimensions are listed width by heighth.
The winners of the Participation Prize (random drawing) and the Board Choice Prize are listed at the end, as we wanted you to enjoy the show first.

Quilt Title: Sidewalk. With Gum.
Quilter: Gayle Bennett
Dimensions: 23 1/2″ x 23 1/2″
Origin: Inspiration from the book Quilting Modern
Inspired by the Jacquie Gering/Katie Pederson pattern for the Fiesta wall quilt in Quilting Modern as well as my view of sidewalks. From the green strip walkways of my neighborhood, to the miles of San Francisco pavement, and the cobblestones of my one (so far) European adventure the presence of gum blobs — apparently just spit out by a person onto the very path they are walking — has always puzzled me. Facing binding with my first attempt at mitered corners for that type of binding.

Quilt Name/Title: MetaStructure/Metaesquema
Quilter’s full name: Elizabeth Eastmond
Dimensions 11″ wide by 16″ high

The Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, created a series of over 200 paintings from 1957-1958, titled Metaesquema, which roughly translates to Metastructure. He was affiliated with the Concrete Movement, which stripped art from any lyrical or symbolic connotations, believing that art should have no meaning other than color, line, and plane. When I think of urban spaces I think always of the grid, a favorite of mine, and for my challenge I wanted to emulate one of Oticica’s Metaesquemas in fabric.

Title: Urban Emissions
Quilter: Cassandra Gray
Dimensions: 23 1/2” x 22 3/4”
Origin: inspired by slide 12 from the original challenge post slideshow

I traced a copy of the slide showing the elevated train tracks shadow on the city street in Adobe Illustrator, generalizing it a bit and blowing up the vector artwork to 24” x 24”, which I had printed at Office Depot (tip: select blueprint printing for the cheapest option, especially if you don’t need color). I bought the closet color match to the Classic Blue from Pineapple Fabrics, along with a good medium gray and a dark navy blue. I cut out the pattern, used Steam-a-Seam and cut out the bridge and sandwiched and ironed the quilt top layers. I really wanted it to be stylized and dark, with the blue being a beacon – of hope, of escape, of whatever you need a beacon of. To me, it could be a bridge or a building – I honestly don’t think it matters. All quilting is with a walking foot – the gray is quilted with King Tut variegated ‘Obsidian’, which I think gives it a rusty, urban feel, and the blue swirls are a 12wt Wonderfil using Catherine Redford’s spiral walking foot technique. I realized that the instructions were to include the entire 4” square of Classic Blue, which really didn’t work with my design, but I think the as-close-as-I-could-get blue works great as the binding!

Quilt Title: Nashville
Quilters’ Name: Ruthann Elder
Dimension: 15 1/2″ by 18 1/2″
Origin of Quilt Design: Original design

It was inspired by a building I saw in downtown Nashville while attending Quiltcon. The way the lights in the building worked with the architecture, I found it inspiring and took a few photos. This design was my second attempt to design a foundation paper piece pattern on my own.

Quilt Title: Urbanosity
Quilters’ Name: Debi Gardner
Dimension: 15 1/2″ x 19″
Origin of Quilt Design: Original design

This quilt was inspired by some apartments in Mountain Grove shopping center in Redlands. They look like stacked boxes in gray, brown, red, and yellow. I put a Mondrian spin on them and added a graffiti wall in place of chain link.The matchstick quilting around the appliqued windows was kind of tedious, but I got the effect I wanted.

Quilt Name/Title: Suzhou Skyline
Dimensions: 24″ x 16″
Quilter’s full name: Laura Greene
Origin of Quilt Design: inspiration from Google Images

I have taught summer school at Suzhou International Language School in China for three summers. I love touring Tiger Hill Temple, Pingjiang Street, Humble Administrators Garden, Pants Building, West Lake, Grand Buddah, and Shanshan Temple.

Quilt Name: Haves and Have Nots
Quilter’s Name: Lynn Hann
Dimensions: 18″ x 23 1/2″
Origin of Quilt Design: Original design

I started planning this quilt by asking several people what images come to mind with the word, “urban.” People answered, busy buildings, noisy transportation, lights, and commotion. When I asked my son, he told me that since Roman times, urban places are where wealthy people in power live in luxury while hoards of poor peasants crowd the small left over spaces to eke out a living. On a recent jaunt to Los Angeles I observed just that: whole streets, smelling of musty urine, crowded with tents, blankets, and bags of belongings, people huddled with empty bottles, trash, and their faces showing lines of stress and a sense of resignation to their plight.

The narrow striped fabric in greys reminded me of tall modern buildings. I used raw edged applique to show the tents and clutter jammed below the modern looking skyline. The required blue challenge fabric is part of the homeless encampment. I took liberties to include politically incorrect stereotypes of white people walking below the tall buildings reaching to the daylight, and people of color huddled below the dark sky, living in makeshift spaces on the sidewalks, in order to emphasize the “Haves and Have Nots” theme.

Quilt Title: Once Upon A Time In East LA
Quilters’ Name: Pat Klassen
Dimension: 24″ x 16″
Origin of Quilt Design: Original design

It’s an original design that was inspired by the graffiti on a passing freight train and walls in East L.A. All the materials were from my stash except the brick fabric. The technique I used is collage without fusing that I learned many years ago. I love to tell stories using fabric motifs and adding small details like the lost cat poster and old tires. Thank you for this challenge as I was in a “slump” and needed something to get me going again.

Quilt Title: LA Twilight
Quilter: Helen Matter
Quilt Dimension: 7 1/4” x 10 1/4”
Original Design

Royal blue is my all-time favorite color, and when I saw the swatch, it reminded me of my favorite sky—just after sunset when you can still see some colors and they blend into those beautiful blues before dark. I struggled with putting together the small pieces, particularly LA City Hall. (I would appreciate some instruction about techniques!) But it was fun to try to achieve the look that was in my imagination.

The LA City Hall building has fascinated me since Marsha first called it the pointy building, which she just told me was from the Lohman and Barkley show on KFI radio! Because of the city’s height restrictions, it was the tallest building in Los Angeles in 1928 when it was completed and remained so until 1964. The building looks dwarfed in the LA skyline today (454 ft.). The other buildings represented are the Wilshire Grand Center (1,100 ft.), the Aon Center (858 ft.), and the Bank of America Center (735 ft.).

Title: City Geese In the Clouds
Quilter: Jan Mills
Dimensions: 24 x 24 inches

The pieced buildings are from a very old magazine describing a different waty to make tumbling blocks. I added lace to indicate fancy moldings on old buildings. The clouds are trapunto and edged in white piping. I used Gail Garber’s technique from her book, Flying Colors, to create freezer paper patterns to paper piece the flying geese. I used my color wheel from our last class as a sun.

Quilt Title: Colorful City
Quilters’ Name: Patti Reyes
Dimension: 24 inches square

I am pleased to submit my original improvisation of Guanajuato, the most colorful city in Mexico. I have always loved photos of that city showing the unregulated application of color to the neighborhoods trailing up the hillsides. All of my fabrics came from stash except for the lapis colored house in front and the sky fabric, a metallic grunge that looks way better in person. I placed purposely wonky steps at the base to ground the neighborhood. I gave a little perspective to the windows to add interest. I added some gray linen and speckled green for textured landscaping. I have not mastered free motion quilting so I used a walking foot. I decided on a faced binding to make it more modern. This was so very challenging for me but fun as well!

Quilt Title: Modern Manhole Cover
Quilters’ Name: Melody Savoian
Dimension: 24 inches square
Origin of Quilt Design: Original design

After researching manhole covers and discovering a variety of different styles, I chose to create my own unique design using EQ8.

Quilt Name: Paved Paradise, Put up a Parking Lot
Quilter: Marsha Schuh
Dimensions: 21 1/2″ x L 22”
Quilter’s Design: Original design
When I heard about the challenge, my first instinct was what Lohman and Barlkley
always called “the pointy building.” They were the comedy team who entertained
me and countless others on KFI during the morning drive to work. When my sister
chose to feature City Hall in her quilt, I began searching for another possibility. I
went through myriad other possibilities, fabrics, and swatches, many of which were
probably better than my final choice. But, I found a small piece of fabric (the center
of the quilt) I’ve wanted to use for a long time.
My family first came to California when I was 4 ½ and stayed in Monterey Park for about 6 months. I thought it was paradise—orange trees, lupins and poppies on the surrounding hills, and the smell of fresh ocean breeze ever and always in the air. We went back to Chicago for another seven years, but returned to my still beautiful, fragrant California on Route 66. I loved Southern California back then, the place where I could wear shorts in winter and pick oranges and kumquats from the trees in our backyard. As the years progressed, my beautiful paradise gradually disappeared. That was the inspiration for my quilt—the disappearance of “all things bright and beautiful” (a phenomenon that continues today).
The title of my piece expresses my pain. The parking lot, the city, the freeways, the
concrete jungle have all but obliterated the glorious land of my youth. The middle
piece depicts what has replaced my dreams, as viewed from a window that seems
like a prison; the cars show the immensity of overwhelming traffic. The lines on
right and left depict the freeways that have overtaken country roads. The blue moon
with striations of fog illustrates the once–in-a-blue-moon glimpses of the way it was.

Unfortunately, Janet Tranbarger’s quilt went sailing out over the internet and didn’t make it into our contest, but we thought it important to include it here.

Quilt Name: Urban Graffiti 4
Quilter: Janet Tranbarger
Dimensions: 24″ square
Origin of Quilt Design: Original, drafted using Electric Quilt software , then altered using a technique developed by Lorraine Torrence in her book Shifting Perspectives. Cotton fabrics, machine pieced and quilted.

There are two prizes being awarded: Participation, and Guild Board Choice. The winners were announced at our Zoom Meeting, today at 2 p.m.

Here’s a fun screenshot of Patti telling us about her quilt at our June 13th Zoom Meeting.

Congratulations to Laura Greene for Participation (a random drawing)

Congratulations to Pat Klassen for Guild Board Choice

And thank you again to all who entered!

Cat standing in front of the Opportunity Quilt, designed by her, and made with help from Guild members. From our Zoom Meeting June 13th, 2020.

We’re in process of getting the binding on the opportunity quilt and we’ll get a better picture of it, and present it to you soon! Cat did a fabulous job!

Don’t forget to send in photos of your red, white, blue, redwhiteblue, patriotic, or any combination of those colors. We’ll post them as we receive them…if you don’t see a post from Inland Empire Modern Quilt Guild that week your email box, it’s because we didn’t have any quilts to share. So, don’t be shy, send them in! And if you don’t have one, see the first post this coming Monday (the day after Flag Day) for a free patriotic quilt to make–it’s quick and easy and comes in two sizes. See you then!

If you would, please include the usual information:

Blog · IEMQG Meeting

General Meeting: Saturday, June 13: Zoom!

June 8, 2020 iemqguild

It’s here! Or will be, this coming Saturday.

Our first ever Zoom meeting will begin at 2 p.m. By now you all should have received your Zoom Link in your emailbox. If you have not, please contact us via email: iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com and we’ll get that right out to you.

Two exciting things will be happening:
1. Reveal of our Guild’s Opportunity Quilt. Cat has been working long and hard on this quilt (assisted by some members of the guild), and we’ll get to see it for the first time at our meeting.

2. Reveal of our Guild’s Urban Challenge. We are so excited about this as we had so many fabulous entries. Prizes will be awarded: a random drawing to determine one for Participation, and one will be awarded for Board’s Choice. We’ll also have all all the quilts, and their makers, and artist statements posting up to our blog that day, too.

One of our VPs of Programs, Laura, has asked if you want to do a Show and Share, please have your quilts ready to show. If they are small, practice holding them up so you aren’t fumbling around. If they are large, consider putting them up on your design wall, or recruit someone at your house to hold them, or even take a picture ahead of time and show it up on your screen, while you tell us about them. Whatever you are comfortable with!

To keep the fun of Show and Share going, starting Sunday, June 14th (Flag Day!!) we will have a few weeks of sharing patriotic quilts, or red+white+blue, or red quilts or blue quilts or white quilts, or any combination of the above colors. We’ll be showing your quilts throughough the rest of June, and into July.

Beginning today, send us a good photo of your quilts to our email (listed above) along with the usual:

Please put “patriotic” or “redwhiteblue” in the subject line or some version of that, if you wouldn’t mind.

See you (and hear you!) on your computer screen this Saturday!

Blog

Updates on Cancellations in our Covid Life

June 1, 2020June 1, 2020 iemqguild

Quilt Festival • Long Beach has been cancelled, but Quilts, Inc. is still planning on holding their fall Quilt Festival in Houston, October 29-November 1, 2020. In their announcement letter, Quilts, Inc. is planning on holding the Long Beach gathering at a later time but at the same place, and are still working on dates. More info can be found on their website.

Our June Meeting, usually scheduled for the first week of June has been morphed into a Zoom Meeting for the following week. The Modern Quilt Guild (national) has made Zoom Meeting capabilities available to all their guilds, and we’ve scheduled one for June 13th and August 1st (our regular time). The link will be sent out a few days before the meeting.

Until we can meet in person, we look forward to seeing you on Zoom next Saturday, and to the reveal of all our Urban Challenge Quilts. We received thirteen entries, and they are all top-notch–we can hardly wait to show you! Winners of the prizes will be announced then, as well, for Participation and Guild Board Choice.

One silver lining to the cancellations we are experiencing is the transformation of our national quilt show, QuiltCon, into a virtual quilt show. Those of us who wouldn’t have been able to travel to Atlanta can now participate in QuiltCon. Emails will come to you directly from MQG, so watch for announcements!

Blog

Incoming Challenge Quilts, Happy Memorial Day, and Other Fun

May 25, 2020May 23, 2020 iemqguild

We’ve been watching with interest as all the Urban Challenge quilts have been coming in to our emailbox–you are really creating some interesting little quilts.

We’ll be presenting them at our first ever Zoom Meeting on Saturday, June 13, 2020. We’ve been trying to figure out a way to meet with you all, and hope you can join us at 2 p.m. on that day. Our Program Chairs will send out a link to your email; just click to join using Zoom.

Tomorrow, May 26th, is our deadline for the quilt to be submitted. We can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on!

Then, beginning June 14th, Flag Day, we hope you will send us photos of your patriotic quilts, which is — loosely defined — any quilt with red or white or blue or redwhiteblue. We’ll have an ongoing show of them through June and into July, when we don’t meet. Maybe you’ve always been wanting to make a little one, to stand on your desk, or a bigger one for a (socially distanced) picnic. We want to see them!!

Use these guidelines of things to tell us about your quilt:

We recently had a Board Meeting via Zoom. Click to read the minutes:

IEMQG Board Virtual Minutes 05.18.20 Download

Blog

Urban Challenge Deadline: May 26, 2020

May 18, 2020May 25, 2020 iemqguild

We are excited about the entries we’ve received for our Urban Challenge, originally set for an April reveal, but now set for a June 13th reveal at our upcoming Zoom Meeting. We just wanted to remind you about the parameters of our guild’s 2020 challenge and encourage you to get making — it’s a small quilt, so it can be made quickly, in a day or maybe two.

Remember this? It was our original advertisement for our Challenge, and included a 4″ swatch of blue fabric, which you must use in your quilt somehow. More is okay, but at this date it may be hard to get locally; take your swatch in to match if you need to buy. The original was Lapis, a Painter’s Palette solid fabric from Paintbrush Studios.

The two other guidelines:

**Except for that April 4th meeting thing….**

The full details and a Google “Mood Board” are found on this post.

Email a good-quality picture of your challenge quilt to: iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com
Please include:

• Quilt Name/Title
• Dimensions
• Quilter’s full name
• Origin of Quilt Design (original design, variation on an existing block, pattern, etc.)
• A Few Details about what you want to say about it. This might include some construction details or things you struggled over, or things at which you were successful. It might also include what prompted you to make it, or who it is for. Pretend you are standing in front of us at our Guild Meetings, and give us the quilt’s biography. We’d love to hear it!
(We’ll edit them for clarity and punctuation.)

That’s it! Thanks for entering, and we’ll send you a reply mail letting you know we received it.

Blog · President's Message

President and Board Members Messages: May 2020

May 12, 2020May 25, 2020 iemqguild

Hello there quilters! I hope everyone is weathering Quarantine Quilting. About a month ago I came to the realization that no matter how you are experiencing the Corona Virus it was all stressful. Stressful to be home, stressful to be in the work place. We’re all dealing with anxiety and either way it feels isolating and there doesn’t seem to be any especially good way to get through it. We just are. I won’t pretend; it’s been hard for me as I’ve continued to work and I admit I adopted a bit of a ‘head in the sand’ coping mechanism. I need to express my thanks our board members and committee people who have carried on with their guild duties. I appreciate their efforts.

As quilters we have inner resources that likely made this experience more bearable. For myself I can definitely say that the peace of my quilting and sewing are a vital part of how I’ve coped. The sanctuary of my sewing room after work and on the weekends has probably kept me saner than I otherwise would have been.

At this point we are looking forward to a regular meeting in August: hopefully, we will be cleared to hold meetings by the State of California. We are also waiting for news about the Riverside Main Library branch location since they will be preparing to move to the new building in the near future. Have a look at the design of the building located at 3911 University Ave, Riverside here: https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/riverside-main-library We’re excited about the new facility, but it’s tentative when our first meeting there will be available. It’s likely that we’ll take advantage of one of the other library facilities in the meantime. Stand by for news of our August meeting as it becomes available. If you haven’t joined us on Facebook or Instagram they are both good sources of quick updates, along with the website/blog.

We are all looking forward to getting together! Take care of yourselves and we’ll see you soon.
Gayle

And now, updates from our Guild Board Members

First up is Judy Racine, of Membership:

Hi everyone! We now have 46 IEMQG members. We are really sad to see Jennifer Adams and Simone Bradford leave our group as they are both moving out of the area. They’ll be so missed!

I was trying to think of a gift I could give you all and decided on this recipe that I found, and then modified from 365daysofcrockpot.com. (spoiler: there is nothing healthy about this!) I know we are passing out of soup season, but if you’re ever in the mood for Marie Calender’s Potato Cheese soup, this is the recipe for you:

CopyCat Marie Calender’s Potato Cheese Soup

32 oz. chicken broth (one box)
6½ cups potatoes (6-7 cups), peeled and 1/4 inch sliced
½ cup white onion diced
1½ cups celery diced
(JR: I added 1 tsp. of garlic and a couple TBS of butter at the beginning)
16 oz. Velveeta cheese (this is the smaller box)
8 oz. sharp cheese grated (do not buy pre-shredded or it won’t melt well)

Add the chicken broth, potatoes, onion, and celery to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours (Cook’s Note: You can also simmer this on the lowest heat on the stove keeping an eye on it – turning it off a couple times to simmer ~ 4 hours since my husband moved my crock pot to the garage and now he can’t find it!)
At the end, cut the Velveeta into small cubes, add that and the shredded sharp cheddar to the slow cooker, stir gently until the cheese melts. (Some potatoes will break apart, this is ok because it will help thicken the soup.)
Taste, then add salt and pepper to your liking.

My mom is a great cook and she told me it was better than Marie Calender’s, so — there’s that!
Hoping to see you all soon!

Candy Scott, Treasurer:

All finances are accounted for, checks and cash from our last meeting has been deposited. We also have a balance in our checking account, with no bills outstanding.

On a more personal note, like many people, I spent the first two days of quarantine just researching various face mask patterns. Fortunately, I had ordered elastic from a wholesaler in L.A. before many people realized there was going to be a shortage. To make it interesting I used fabric with sports, music, food, or animals, etc. Whether we made just one for ourselves, or 100 or more for front line and first responders, family or friends, we are all doing something to help flatten the curve. Thank you. Now I’m taking a break from mask making and working on a couple of baby quilts.

Elizabeth Eastmond, Communications Chair:

I have been busy behind the scenes, smoothing out the migration of our Guild’s Website. Hopefully, you didn’t notice a thing (but I also need to say a thank you to my son, Peter, who made all the difference). We are also attempting to get your email notification sign-ups transferred, but until we do, we’ll send out links via a blast email. Please make sure your email address is up-to-date, by contacting us at iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com if it is not.

Kelley, my assistant, is busy keeping Facebook and Instagram up to date. You can see either of those, by clicking on the links to the upper right. I appreciate all the work she does to keep those social media accounts running smoothly! If you have any concerns about this blog, or other communication issues, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email. We check our Guild’s inbox weekly, and will reply to you as quickly as we can.

Like others, I find it hard to concentrate during this time of COVID-19, but have been working on my Sawtooth Star quilts. Here’s a couple of pictures of the quilts in progress. I hope you’ll send us pictures of your finished quilts, so we can put them here up on the blog. Our next Guild deadline of May 25th is coming up quickly for our Urban Challenge (see below for more details).

But after that, we would like to feature your quilts in June and July. As I receive your photos, I’ll post them up. Please take a well-lit picture of your quilt, and include the following information:

• Quilt Name/Title and dimensions (can either include the measurements, or a rough approximation such as “baby quilt” or “lap quilt” or “queen-sized bed quilt” etc.)
• Quilter’s full name
• Origin of Quilt Design (original design, variation on an existing block, pattern, etc.)
• A Few Details about what you want to say about it. This might include some construction details or things you struggled over, or things at which you were successful. It might also include what prompted you to make it, or who it is for. Pretend you are standing in front of us at our Guild Meetings, and give us the quilt’s biography. We’d love to hear it!
(We’ll edit them for clarity and punctuation.)

Laura Greene and Becky Brekke, Program Chairs:

Although we aren’t having everyone-altogether-meetings, we are hard at work at figuring out how to get together. The Modern Quilt Guild (National) has made available time slots for local guilds to schedule Zoom meetings.

Please mark these dates and deadlines on your calendar:
May 25, 2020: Urban Quilt Challenge deadline pictures due. Please see above for what to include.
June 13, Saturday at 2 p.m. (MQG didn’t have the first week available) — We will get to talk about our Urban Quilt Challenge and other Show and Share. To do show and share, we ask that you email pictures of your quilts ahead of time; we’ll put them in a document and share them with you at that time. When it’s your turn to talk about your quilt, please use the suggested outline above. We will have a raffle for those who attend. A few days before our meeting, you will be emailed a link to click on to attend the Zoom meeting.
June 14, 2020: It’s Flag Day!! Email us pictures of any patriotic quilts you have made. We’ll post those throughout June and July, as well as any Show and Share Quilts you want to send us. See above for what to include.
July 4th–Happy Independence Day! (no meeting)
July 29, 2020: We’re getting ready for our Zoom Meeting on August 1st, so send us your Show and Share Quilts, along with the information above (in the green box).
August 1, Saturday at 2 p.m. — We will have a Powerpoint presentation by Laura Greene called “My Best Binding.” Show and Share is also encouraged; details on this to follow. We will have a raffle for those who attend. You will be emailed a link to click on to attend.

A reminder:

The Urban Quilt Challenge is due by May 25th. Just email a picture of your quilt to iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com. Quilts will be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and this blog beginning June 1. We will have two prizes; one for Participation and one for the Board’s Choice Award. Just to get you going, here are some pictures of two different Urban Challenge Quilts in Progress:

Notice that blue fabric? That’s “Lapis” by Paintbrush Studio, in their Painter’s Palette line of solids, if you need more. We handed out squares of it early this spring, and this is the common link between our quilts. That, and the fact that our theme is Urban. More information can be found in an earlier post on our blog, and we also have a Mood Board slideshow for you to see.
The deadline is in just 13 days, but you can do this! Remember that these are smaller quilts, with the largest greatest measurement of any side finishing at 24.” So go dig out that square, and start creating.

Simone Bradford, Block Lotto:

We are moving to Sacramento this summer, having just sold our house. My husband is being transferred to a new area. I’ve enjoyed being your Block Lotto Chairperson, and hope you’ve enjoyed creating new blocks every other month. The blocks reside here, on this blog, and also on my blog, Simone Bradford. I will miss you all!

Lastly, a note from our outgoing Secretary, Jennifer Adams:

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they have the heart.” This quote by Elizabeth Andrew is one of my favorite quotes and is certainly relevant in my personal life, particularly as it relates my tenure the past two and a half years in our guild. I have been honored to serve as an Executive Board member for nearly my full membership in our guild. An experience that I have found both personally and professionally rewarding. I stepped into my first role as VP of Communications at my second meeting. This past year I have served as your Secretary.

Being intimately involved in our guild’s leadership operations provided me with an opportunity to shape our path as well as develop new skills along the way. One of my greatest accomplishments early on was learning how to revamp our guild’s website to meet the growing needs of our membership. While I have some general computer skills (and am lucky enough to be married to a software developer) I had never designed a website let alone managed a blog. The reigns of my former role now reside with the tremendously talented Elizabeth Eastmond as she continues to develop our website even more for our members. Beyond that, I got to see firsthand how important social media, both Instagram and Facebook, serve to help solidify relationships both near and far in the modern quilting world. Considering how isolated we are all right now, those virtual connections are even more important.

I really believe that while this global pandemic has changed the fabric of our world forever; leaving patches of goodness for us to all rebuild – one ‘block’ or ‘piece’ at a time. As I leave my role as your Secretary with my upcoming move out of California, I would encourage everyone to feel invested in our guild and remain connected. Reach out on Facebook with a current project you are working on or see how you can help with the guild’s operations as we move forward in our ‘new normal’. As Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Stay Safe and Quilt On!

We’ll let our President have the last say:

We are in need of volunteers to help keep our Guild running smoothly, especially at this time. We are in need of a Secretary, a Fundraising Chairperson, and a Charity Chairperson. As Jennifer put it so wonderfully, invest in our guild and remain connected. We need you! If you can give a few hours of your time per month, please contact me, Gayle, at iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com. Thank you.

Blog

Virtual Urban Challenge

April 30, 2020 iemqguild

Remember our Urban Challenge? Well, we haven’t forgotten it!
The presentation of our challenges was supposed to be in April, but Ms. Corona Virus caught us all by surprise, and it was skipped over. However, we do want to see your creations! However, given the limitations of social distancing and various stay-at-home orders, we are heading online.

Yes, we’re going to have our challenge go virtual! If you’ve forgotten what the parameters were, this blog post has details: use at least 4″ square of the blue fabric, largest maximum measurement per side is 24.”

Please take a good picture of your creation, using a well-lit area and holding that camera steady. Try to fill the frame with your quilt, leaving some extra around the edges, but getting a good photograph.

Then email it to us at: iemodernquiltguild@gmail.com

Deadline: May 26, 2020

We’ll be posting your Urban Challenge Quilt photos all during the month of June on this blog, on Facebook and and on Instagram. At the end of the month, in lieu of our June meeeting, we’ll have a drawing for two prizes:

• Participation (photo sent and and challenge requirements met)
• IEMQG Board Choice (the board will choose one quilt)

So don’t delay–get going on finishing up your Urban Challenges, and get them emailed by May 26th, 2020 (the day after Memorial Day). Our online Urban Challenge Quilt Show begins June 1st!

Blog · IEMQG Meeting

Meeting Updates for May, June, July 2020 • COVID-19

April 22, 2020 iemqguild

Updated April 22, 2020

CANCELLED MEETINGS:

May 2: IEMQG General Meeting
June 6: IEMQG General Meeting
July 4: We are dark this month because of the July 4th holiday.
We will evaluate mid-July about whether or not we’ll have a meeting August 2020. Factors influencing our decision as a board were:
• California shut-down guidelines
• Los Angeles City shut-down guidelines
• Riverside City Library shut-down guidelines

We recently had a Zoom meeting as a board, and the minutes are available here as a PDF file (for download):

IEMQG Board Virtual Minutes 04.20.20 Download

We’d also like to encourage our members to visit the main Modern Quilt Guild website, to join in their webinars, explore their resources, and keep your quilting interests perking along during this time of no meetings.

Screenshot of MQG website. Each category has lots more to explore!

Please see upcoming posts for news on our IEMQG Challenge, now moving online!